I was diagnosed with lupus and fibromyalgia in November. I spent 4 months almost unable to walk at all. I’m doing a lot better now, but it’s hard for me to walk farther distances or stay on my feet long.
I’m getting immunosuppressant infusions and stuff, so I’m doing all the things I can be medically I think.
I’ve been flaring up so badly the last week. I’ve been doing a little steroid pulse, and I have pain meds but I don’t like to take them when I want to be present with what I’m doing. I wen’t on a short trip to the mall and I am in so much pain now.
I’ve been all against getting a cane because I feel like it won’t help, or it’ll bring unwanted attention. I’m headed into clinicals at nursing school and I’m afraid people will think I can never be a real nurse.
I’m at the point where I’m just over it. I don’t want to be hobbling and struggling at unpredictable times because my body decides to be stupid that day. There is no day I am painless, but I really would like to be able to enjoy myself out of the house without so much repercussion.
I’m about to get married and go on my honeymoon (3 weeks away), and I’m just picturing myself struggling to get around and see our travel spot, and then laying in agony all night from walking too far. Or, being fuzzy on pain meds the whole time.
I can just buy a cane and fit it using an online guide, but is that okay? Do I need be measured by a doctor? I don’t want to do more damage to my body by doing it wrong.

Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my recent experience with leveraging LinkedIn to get users for my SaaS product, AutoSWE, which automates job applications for entry-level software engineers. Here's a quick breakdown of the results from my LinkedIn post:

• 5000 Impressions
• 180 Clicks
• 50 Sign-ups
• 25 Fully Setup Accounts
• 5 Free Trial Users
• 0 Paid Users

How I Did It:

1. Leveraged My Network: My LinkedIn network consists mostly of my ideal customer profile (ICP)—entry-level software engineers and recent grads. By crafting a targeted and compelling post, I was able to gain some traction within my network. I'm also a fan of how LinkedIn spreads posts, if you can get reactions and some shares your post can start to spread really quickly.
2. Engaging Content: The post focused on the pain points of job searching, told a story, and wrapped up with how AutoSWE solves the problem. I included a call-to-action (CTA) that prompted users to check out the platform.
3. Personal Touch: I recalled my own new grad job search and showed how my own struggles led me to build this platform. I believe this created a sense of connection and trust.

Current Marketing Efforts:

Right now, I'm actively commenting and messaging in subreddits where my ICP is present. I'm also sending cold messages, follow-ups, and connection requests on LinkedIn. Here’s an example of a cold message I sent to a user on Reddit:

Seeking Feedback and Advice:

Despite these efforts, I'm finding it rare to get feedback from my messages, and when I do, it's generally a quick "I'll check it out" with no further engagement. I believe it's a matter of getting more repetitions in before I can start to analyze too far, but I'm not seeing much success so far.
I'd love to open up a discussion on marketing tips:

• Do you have any suggestions on improving my cold outreach?
• What strategies have worked for you in similar situations?
• Should I keep on the same path for a bit longer, or is it time to switch up my approach?

Looking forward to your feedback and advice!

I am loving Strongbox but am not yet committing. I am exploring exporting, how I could go back to Enpass should something happen between Strongbox and me. Strongbox can export as .csv and/or .kdbx files. Of these two Enpass only accepts .csv but the issue is not all the necessary data is included. For example, for credit cards all relevant data is present in Strongbox but nowhere in the resulting .csv files. Likewise, serialization data for software is present in Strongbox but not the .csv file.
Once again I'm hoping it's simply something I've missed.

This is my second ever time going to SNM. I wrote up about my first time and how magical it was and I'm so glad I got to go again because let me tell y'all I somehow managed to have an entirely new experience this time.
I got the Oz Guest ticket to ensure I got an Ace card, and I was the first one off the elevator. I was dropped off on the 5th floor, alone, which was quite creepy with all the hospital beds and tubs and the forest. There was no one for several minutes, and I was disoriented and couldn't find the stairs or any way out. I drifted between the tub room and the forest, and eventually a nurse appeared in the tub room. I observed her wringing clothes in water, and draping them across the tubs, staging them like they were people. This process was slow and I heard a noise in the distance so I followed that into the forest, where I saw one other guest watching the cottage in the forest. I noticed finally that there was actually a nurse inside, eyes closed, only visible from one angle so I hadn't seen her when I passed earlier.
With nothing else to do, I stood there watching for what seemed like ages. Surely, at some point, she would do something? It was so long that I thought for sure I was missing a lot of the show. I wondered if it was worth it. I wondered what the other guest was wondering. A few others passed us, but no other characters for the longest time. Then a bell chimed, and the nurse finally opened her eyes. She looked out at us, stood, and....closed the window. At this point I was sure I had just wasted my time. I was debating leaving. But no one else was moving. But surely, this was a waste of time. I turned to leave, and suddenly the nurse from the tub room appeared, crying, and the nurse inside the cottage opened the window to observe her. I must say the lighting here was excellent, but then the lighting in this show continuously impresses me. I have never been a lighting nerd but this show has made me realize how impactful lighting can be to a show. It's used masterfully in many scenes.
But back to the show. The nurse finally came out, and touched hands with the other nurse. They walked. I walked. We all wove through that forest, until the tub nurse ran suddenly, and we were running too, and then we were locked out from a gate. The tub nurse appeared in a window to the tub room, and danced as we watched. This small dance seemed to me like she was on the edge of a cliff, and her grief took her over as she fell suddenly off the edge. Not fell, leaped. I read this scene as a woman tortured by grief taking her own life, while a friend? Colleague? Observed.
Then my cottage nurse turned and walked slowly back to her cottage. She opened the door a crack, and turned, staring at me. I stepped closer. She opened it further. Cautiously, I stepped inside. She closed the door behind us. What transpired next was a magical experience I will not soon forget, with the taste of tea on my lips and whispered words about a moon like decayed bark and a sun like a wilted sunflower and stars like flies pinned to place. Blood will have blood...
I left and there was no one outside the cottage or indeed in the forest at all. I made my way through it and the tub room and finally found another hallway. I'm going to be honest, I do forget where I wandered then, and I may definitely be mixing up the order in which the following scenes happened because the night was a fever dream. But I witnessed scenes I did not see the first time I went last month. Somehow, by luck, other than the ending scene and the rave I did not see any duplicate scenes.
I saw the porter - who I don't think I ever encountered last time - and his dance in the hotel lobby is my new favorite. It's so full of raw joy, and though he was clearly an older man he danced with boyish jubilance that was infectious. More than a few of us observers were absolutely dancing along with him as we watched. I also found his interactions with the Boy Witch fascinating and their choreography at the telephones was my favorite by far.
The Boy Witch was another character I only saw in the ballroom and the rave last time, but who I witnessed several scenes with this time around. He's far too fast for me to follow, but I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time several times throughout the show. It was the same actor as last time, and I have to saw I think he plays the character really well. He's clearly sought after by everyone he encounters, seducing and drawing people in. I loved every scene with him almost as much as the Porter. Also, is the snake tattoo his or his characters? It's really beautiful, either way.
I saw two very intimate scenes with the Bald Witch, who I wondered how I missed last show but found out I didn't - she wears a wig through part of the show 😅 The little room she cleans up in a few times throughout the show off the side of the lobby is where I encountered her most. Once solo, and I felt almost bad I stepped into the room with her because I'm not small and I know I partially blocked the view of people outside of the room but fortune favors the bold right? I did try to squeeze myself into a corner, which only resulted in another person coming in to fully block the view from the hallway. That person caught the eye of the bald witch instead of me (I should have just stayed out blocking them 😤) and was allowed to touch her head in a very intimate moment.
The second time I caught her in there was by following a woman whose character name I don't know, after the ballroom scene where the two of them move the trees and then embrace. This time I did not care if I blocked people, me and one other person were in the room and watched the two women clean themselves up and reapply makeup. When the other woman left, I stayed with the bald witch (now wearing a wig), who fascinated me.
At some point I ended up in the rave bar before the rave began. I didn't know the "Hell Here" sign changed to "Hello There" before the rave! Every time I had seen it previously it had the o and t unlit. I saw Hecate readying for the rave. The music changed, and she danced, and eventually she made gasping sounds. Each gasp seemed to be a summoning. A ritual, drawing the other characters towards her. Her scream initiated the rave, and this time I had front row view from a different angle than I had previously, so it was like seeing it new all over again. Every bit as incredible, but different enough to feel like a brand new experience. And again, the lighting, seriously I'm a lighting whore after this show. I will forever judge theater experiences by their use of lighting compared to this show now. I hope whoever is in charge of lighting design is paid handsomely because seriously their work really drives the story. The music too, but I'm more impressed by the lighting tbh.
After the rave, I debated trying for the Hecate 1 on 1 since I knew what triggered it from last show, but I wanted to try new experiences this time so I tried to follow the Boy Witch instead. But I couldn't keep up, and there were too many people, and the next thing I knew I was by myself wandering empty halls again.
I can't remember if this happened before or after the rave, but I saw Agnes in the hall with all the shops. She went into a bedroom, and lay to sleep, where the tailor (not sure that's the characters actual title?) snuck in through the closet and put her capelet over her as she slept. When he left, she woke, and she locked the door to the room. I watched her put on makeup, and then go into the closet. Me and the 3 others watching kind of looked at each other, wondering if we should follow. Two of them tried the door, to find it's locked. Once I knew that I plowed into the closet and had a delirious thought about going to Narnia but no, I just ended up back in the shops hallway, where I saw Agnes meet the man who had covered her when she slept, and together they went into the clothier, and danced as he presented her with fabrics to choose from, and when he left she stole his money, and he brought her flowers, and then she went back to her room. She went next to the detective agency, and wrote a letter which I couldn't read despite trying over her shoulder (I'm a creep, this show makes me feel like such a voyeur lol).
At some point I ended up back in the lobby, watching the porter and the Boy Witch and two women and I think MacBeth? Dancing on the lobby desk, which was wonderfully choreographed again. Instead of following the others I stayed with the porter and situated myself in front of him as he made a tiny boat out of a card. Then Agnes was there, ringing the bell for the porter, and I realized then we'd had a reset because I had seen this scene already. I went to take the boat origami, but as I reached for it another guest snatched it away - like literally, she had been pressed to my side the entire scene, her fingers twitching so she clearly knew the opportunity would be coming. I thought that was a little uncalled for, but whatever, I'd already had a few very special moments today I wasn't going to let one instance sour anything.
I left to find another scene as I had watched this one already, and ended up back at the Manderlay bar by accident. Took that opportunity to use the restroom and grab a quick drink because a woman was singing and she had a lovely voice. Listened until her song was done and when I went to leave, the guy who was the greeter at the start of the show asked if I want to enter a different way, and took me in through the "main" entrance which somehow I had never gone in through before?? This deposited me in the lobby of the hotel of course, and I wandered until I encountered two people running towards each other and embrace, sobbing. The man went on, and far too many people followed him so I followed the woman, who went into the room with the lit cross where Duncan(?) body is. She unwrapped him and used true loves kiss to bring him back to life. Together they went to the ballroom and danced, which was beautiful. Then she left, and I followed our resurrected Duncan because I had NO IDEA he came back to life at any point from last show so I was like bro what are you gonna do with your new life??? Well, he decided to retrace his steps of course, clearly confused and slowly remembering what had happened to him as he went first to the cross room, then to the place of his murder, then through to the room he dances in before his murder, and then he went running. I tried keeping up but well, I am not a runner.
Somewhere along the way I end up back in the ballroom, having followed someone I encountered in the hall. I thought oh great, banquet again, let me wander and see if anything else happens elsewhere since I have already seen this? But as I went to leave, the Porter and a woman came in, and positioned themselves in the back of the ballroom. I had not seen this before as I'm usually at the front, so I decided to stay and see if they do anything interesting. And this is when I realized the show was ending, because the banquet turned into a hanging, and we were then all ushered out.
Second time going to this show, and I feel I saw a whole new show having witnessed so many scenes I hadn't seen last time. I wonder how many more I am missing? I hope to see it once more next month, and maybe finally see the entire show and put together the pieces of plot. I definitely feel that this time I was able to absorb more, and found myself actually applying motives and thoughts and words to scenes that had none. I love that there are very few spoken scenes - it leaves the experience up to the beholder to interpret, and I know from reading others recaps that we all kind of notice different inflections that mean different things to us and change how we view a scene. I'm only sorry i waited so long to see this show - I wish I could have seen it more often to truly capture all of it.
But, I may have another chance next month! Until then, I for one will definitely be getting a good nights sleep after all that walking today 😂

I've just finished the latest expeditionary force book and I still have a few days left on vacation so looking for more. It's my absolute favourite series by far.
I enjoy modern books about present time-ish humans exploring the unknown, with explanations to the science behind things, whilst not getting too deep into politics or personal relationships/history/drama. I'm not a big fan of the star wars/trek style aliens that live alongside humans, it always seems a bit far fetched to me (parts of exfor are like this, tho the senior species which exist are alright I guess, but the elders are really interesting, the outsiders even more so.). A little humour is welcome too.
I also loved project hail Mary recently as it was all discovery start to finish, no drama and a little humour. The Martian doesn't really appeal to me because there's no discovery (only seen the movie though).
Here's some more examples with pros/cons for me:
3 body - too slow, too much drama/politics/history
Expanse - too much politics/drama but loved the hard sci-fi and exploration.
Academy series - loved the exploration but too much drama/history
Bobiverse - first two books were good because of the unknowns, later two were full of drama.
Shards of earth - only one book so far, liked the unknown but not the politics
Children of time - loved the science but found the last two books a bit slow/heavy and a bit too much drama.
If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.

I just took the aleks placement exam and i got a 47, in the review it says there are subjects on the test that were never even asked, for example trigonometry and logarithms were never on the test but a lot of simple “foil” and y=mx+b questions were there which is reflected in the report, to which it says that i have mastered 36/37 but for the subjects that werent present it says 0/20.
what should I do?

One thing that anoyed me about ToP in Dragon Ball Super is that at the beginning of the arc the show revealed that Universe 7 had one of the lowest punctuations. We dont know if the punctuation was based in power level or quality of life. It would made sense if it was power level because DBS is a battle shonen show/manga. But in case of anime it would make sense if it was quality of life due to how messy Universe 9 was presented.
But if it was power level to build some tension. Then it was bait because Universe 7 performance was much better than other universes. Universe 7 was the one who kicked out majority of warriors and honestly felt scammed about Bills brining out the other "12 universes" because 7 of those universes had characters below universe 7 power levels with pretty FEW exceptions. Things get worse in the manga where Opuli, green warrior of Zamas universe, cant even match Mystic Gohan so Zamas universe had ssj level warriors at most unlike his anime version. Toppo is at most ssj blue level, Dyspo isnt mystic Gohan level etc.
Other case is Naruto. The show/manga portrayed the Great hidden villages as if they were closed in power with Hidden Leaf Village being slightly better But Hidden Leaf Village with Uchiha alone had a huge advantage over the rest of the villages. They had people who can copy jutsu, throw you genjutsu and a large etc. Then add the Hidden jutsu clan, the Senju and the Hyuga and you will realize how stacked was the Hidden Leaf in comparison of the rest of the villages. Lets not forget how casual you can find people with other chakra nature aside of fire which is supposed to be Hidden Leaf speciallty (Sasuke and Tsunade had electric release, Itachi had water release, Kakashi had earth, electric, wind release ; Asuma got wind release, Hiruzen got 5 chakra natures etc).
Hidden Sand Village for example, only had puppet masters, people with wind release. Cloud Hidden Village just got people with electric release (whose huge deal, electric blades, was something Sasuke replicated with ease) and Mist Hidden Village got only people with water release. We dont know if they got clans with elemental kekkei genkai aside of Haku's clan I guess? They dont have Clans specialized in hidden jutsu like Konoha. So that steals tension when you analyze the whole thing. Naruto grew up by far in the best stacked village. Rock Village just got people who control rocks.

I'll try to keep this as straight to the point as possible, although I admit I am STRESSED OUT and probably overthinking:

• I have a male cat, PW, who is about 10 years old. He's lived with other cats multiple times before (used to live in NYC/move frequently); never did a formal introduction process and never had any issues or fights.
  
• My partner has a female cat, H, who is about 8 years old. As far as we know, she's never lived with other cats. She is generally a very anxious and insecure cat, for example she struggles to eat without someone standing next to her at her food dish.
  
• For about 2 weeks, PW was staying in the second bedroom at my partner's old apartment, and we tried introducing them through the door at mealtimes. H would hiss at and stare through the door, and lunged at it once, but was able to tolerate eating with the door gap uncovered. PW was calm and non-reactive and responded to H mostly with curiosity and/or trepidation. We also did some scent swapping for short periods of time and began using Feliway plugins.
  
• For the last 4 weeks, we have had them separated in our new home. For week 1 and week 2, the cats were separated in their own bedrooms, and would have designated times to explore the rest of the house. During this time period H would antagonize PW through the door gap, and dragged away towels that we used to block the door. We stopped doing mealtimes at the door (not sure if this was a mistake?) and focused on scent swapping. There was an altercation; we didn't see what happened but H had been exploring the house and antagonized PW through the door gap, and he was able to scratch her paw, causing light bleeding. We got draft stoppers that velcro to the doors after this, so H can't detach them.
  
• After week 2, we made a "cat area" in the basement and have had the cats on separate floors, swapping 2-3 times a day. However since we are rarely in the basement, the cat downstairs will frequently meow or paw at the door. They both seem less stressed overall not being trapped in a single bedroom, but we're concerned that they may be feeling resource competition over our attention/time. We do play with and feed the cats downstairs, but it's nowhere near 50/50, and only one cat can be upstairs overnight to sleep with us (which both cats are accustomed to.)
  
• Another incident occurred when we were not present, and PW was somehow able to knock the basement door open. We're not sure how things started, but when we got downstairs PW lunged and pounced on H, and sliced up my partner pretty bad when he got between them. It was around dinnertime and I suspect PW was hungry and irritable, H was antagonizing him through the door, and he was able to lunge at her when the door bumped open. She was not injured but was clearly very afraid.
  
• After weeks of her hissing at him, PW is now much more reactive to H than he seemed to be previously; H also seems increasingly anxious about PW after these altercations. We still haven't been doing shared mealtimes and are focusing on scent swapping and getting them to stop antagonizing each other through the door.
  

My questions:

• Is using food/mealtime actually a good way to get them to calm down with the door scraps? It feels notable to me that they're more likely to antagonize each other this way when they're hungry. Even though there was some hissing when we tried it before, H was able to eat with PW around, and I feel like re-introducing positive mealtime associations would be a good thing. My partner is concerned about "pushing it" and making things worse so I'm not sure what the right move is.
  
• How do we make having them on separate floors less stressful for them? Personally I think we should get more toys and cat trees for the basement to make it more exciting; right now there's a scratching post, some shelves to jump on, a few comfy seats, a TV (which I try to put cat TV videos on as often as possible) and a toy on a string, but nothing the cats can really play with on their own. I think this would make a big difference, is there an inexpensive way to further cat-ify the basement?
  
• How do we actually get things moving in a positive direction?? I'm having such a hard time not being discouraged by the fact that it feels like in the last 6 weeks, we've only been moving backwards. I would really like to figure out how to start making positive associations and helping them get along, because I am seriously stressing myself sick about keeping them separated and avoiding another (worse) fight.
  

I get the distinctions between the past, present and future tense. And the present continuous etc, but is there a general social human default to use the past than the present tense? I read novels etc and most seem to use the past tense, when I have read a few using the present it seems unsettling somehow. Conversationally speaking I feel like it is different, but still the past is preferred unless necessary. Is it because we generally are looking backwards rather than what we are currently doing planning on doing? I can think of examples like, tried vs. trying

I've been thinking recently that I've never truly fallen in love with someone I've dated. Looking back on my romantic relationships, I realize that while I liked and felt attracted to my partners, I never felt that deep love for them. In my mind, love is about sacrifice and unwavering devotion to another person. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect people to feel so deeply about someone else. I know I'm capable of feeling that way, but no one has ever felt it for me. Now, I'm considering my first career as a veterinary nurse as my first love. I was almost borderline obsessed with anything related to animals since I was a child. I used to watch Animal Planet every day, and throughout the years and my own research, I gained enough skills and knowledge to work in the field without certification for several years. The amount of time, energy, and care I put into my work is what made me love my job, regardless of any stressors. But again, this is not romantic love. I long for the fairy tale dream, but I know it's not realistic. My standards aren't extremely high, and I've put myself out there to be vulnerable with those I've been with. I want to hear about other people's examples of what true, lasting romantic love feels like.

I Manifest to the World or rather notes for history is a book written by Emperor Iturbide when he was in exile in Liorna, Italy. In it he expressed his vision and explains his political conduct.
Here are some quotes i like:
His opinion on a Mexican Republic:
"Nature produces nothing by leaps but by intermediate degrees. The moral world follows the rules of the physical world. Wanting to suddenly go from a state of dejection such as that of servitude, from a state of ignorance such as that produced by three hundred years without books, without teachers, and knowledge being a reason for persecution; Wanting to suddenly and as if by magic acquire enlightenment, have virtues, forget worries, realize that the man who does not fulfill his duties is not entitled to claim his rights, is an impossible that only fits in the head of a visionary. How many reasons could be presented against the dreamed republic of the Mexicans and how little those who compare what was called New Spain with the United States of America reach! Misfortunes and time will give my countrymen what they lack. I hope I'm wrong."
I personally think he was right Mexico had to underwent so much anarchy, revolutions, misfortunes and multiples Republic to be able to have a somewhat working republic.
His opinion on Hidalgo movement:
"In the year 1810 I was a simple subaltern: The revolution projected by Don Miguel Hidalgo, priest of Dolores, made its explosion, who offered me the rank of lieutenant general. The proposal was seductive for a young man without experience, and at the age of ambition, I despised it, however, because I was convinced that the priest's plans were poorly conceived, they could not produce the object that was proposed to come to fruition. Time proved the certainty of my predictions. Hidalgo and those who succeeded him, following his example, desolated the country, destroyed fortunes, established hatred between Europeans and Americans, sacrificed thousands of victims, obstructed the sources of wealth, disorganized the army, annihilated industry, made worse the fate of the Americans, exciting the vigilance of the Spaniards in view of the danger that threatened them, corrupting customs; and far from achieving independence, the obstacles that opposed to it increased"
His opinion on the atrocities commited by the 2 sides after 1810:
"In the Mexican Congress there was an attempt to erect statues to the leaders of the insurrection and pay funeral tributes to their ashes. I had persecuted these same leaders and would persecute again if we went back to that time, so that it can be said who is right, the Congress or me. It is necessary not to forget that the voice of insurrection does not mean independence or just freedom, nor was the object of claiming the rights of the nation, but rather to exterminate every European, destroy possessions, prostitute oneself, despise the laws of war, those of humanity and even those of religion. The warring parties waged war to the death. The disorder preceded the operations of the Americans and Europeans, but it must be confessed that the former were guilty, not only for the evils they caused but because they gave the latter room to practice the same atrocities that they saw in their enemies. If such men deserve statues, what is reserved for those who did not separate themselves from the path of virtue?"

Good morning
I trust you are well.
I have a question and I do not mean to insult anyone so please forgive me.
I married a Muslim woman and I have noticed with the men in her house and Muslim men generally they seem to be babied by their mother and then their wives.
I noticed with my brother in law he is single 44 never married when he stayed with us the earliest I saw him get up was 2pm and he wasn’t really respectful of the routine of the house. For example he wouldn’t be home for dinner but still expect dinner cooked for him.
My son who is 30 when he stays with me he either makes sure he is home for dinner if he is not then he will let me know and get his own.
Also on one occasion my wife told me to make sure her brother had lunch ready for him. Well I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought of that idea. He can get out of bed and make his own lunch.
I was also told not to show affection towards her in front of her brother as he may be offended. By affection I mean a kiss hello or goodbye etc. I told her this is my home he doesn’t make the rules.
On one occasion when we went to pick her up from work my wife greeted her brother with a kiss but not me. I asked her why and she said her brother would be offended it is religious and cultural. I replied that everyone watching thought your brother was your husband and I was some random dude.
I have seen the same sort of thing with her nephew who is 22. They don’t seem to have a sense of responsibility and expect things done for them. Even her son expects this and I noticed he is really babied.
One other thing is that they would all speak in their native language in my lounge room whilst I was present despite the fact they all spoke English and despite the fact I pulled them up on it and explained it was rude.
Is this religious, cultural or just how they were raised.

Two species, both alike in advancement,
Spanning the vast emptiness of black space;
Expanding borders create encroachment,
Interstellar ships brings foes face to face.
Whence from their cradles the worlds issue forth
A vast pair of exploratory fleets,
Whose collisions do readily transport
A balanced wave of death whence they shall meet.
Cultural ignorance breeds the great hate,
Foreign ideas permeate all the norms,
Whereas pastimes do, the soldiers lives abate,
These trinkets have the power to transform.
That which matters not to one may save all
For its meaning may be hard to recall
false significance plastered on the wall
May yet bring peace and prosperity all.
—-------------------
The klaxons shattered the silence of the station, blaring through all of the corridors and reverberating off the bulkheads. The cacophony of sounds, as the entire crew leapt from their bunks and quickly grabbed their most prized, or irreplaceable, possessions, grew in intensity as the red lights flared in an oscillating sequence.
The crew were halfway through packing before the klaxons were punctuated by instructions: “All hands, prepare to abandon station. M’quezniok Battle Cruiser is inbound. Repeat: M’quezniok Battle Cruiser inbound. Take only what you must and make your way to the nearest escape craft.”
The drills had been effective. All hands of the terraforming station were accounted for in the various slipstream escape craft within 7 minutes of the initial detection of the inbound warship.
All possessions were secured within another 3 minutes and the small fleet of vessels were free of the atmosphere 5 minutes later. In formation they slid silently through the blackness and away from the approaching insatiable appetite of conquest.
27 hours later, the twinkling effect began at the bow of each vessel as they pierced the veil of reality and speared their way into the void between the planck lengths of spacetime.
Earth Command received them a mere 49 hours, 29 minutes, and 37 seconds after the last of the escape craft abandoned the terraforming station.
The station became another dot on the map of conquest of the M’quezniok, a line that seems to be expanding in all directions away from their homeworld much faster than the humans can build up and sort of defensive perimeter.
The M’quezniok culture lacks subtlety and nuance; it lacks empathy. It only has room for measurable strength and their measure lies in whether or not property can be taken and held. If it can, it belongs to whomever can do so… and that someone, in their eyes, should always be them. They have no mercy and eradicate all citizens of colonies that they conquer. They raze every building that cannot be readily adapted to their purposes. They devour any animals that they cannot use for brute force. They are ruthless and their culture lies entirely in the glory of the expansion of their empire, in an unsustainable need for personal edification for each military commander.
—--
The ground forces commander entered the station ahead of her troops. There were no humans here. They fled like the cowards they were, well in advance of the arrival of her ship. There was no honorable conquest to be had at this location, just the claiming of an abandoned complex. As such, since there were no spoils of individual combat for any of her crew to claim, the entire base was hers for the first-taking. None of her crew dared touch anything in a way that might suggest an interest in it for, the appearance for claiming spoils out of turn could result in punishments far greater than any rewards to be found here.
The Commander walked through the terraforming station, going through bunk after bunk, finding nothing of value and even less of military value. There were no secrets here. There were no riches here. There were… clothes, little trinkets, manuals for the equipment, nasty human food. The commander was greatly disappointed in the raid but, in order for her crew to split the meager offerings that were present, she had to take SOMETHING. So she chose a box on the floor at her feet. This room, like all the others, was a no-frills crew bunk. Like the others there was nothing of apparent value in it. So, she took the box and declared that it was the entirety of her prize. The crew cheered and vanished into the station, each one searching for anything that they might deem of value for their own trophies.
The Commander took the box and returned to her quarters where she opened it to see what personal secrets it may have, what stories of the former crew member who fled the station like a coward at her approach. She found, much to her shock and utter amazement, a vast collection of tales of superior warriors. Brave individuals who, in the times of greatest need for the human civilization, had risen to the challenges within their own society to defeat the misguided evils that sought to undermine the human way of life as it existed then and as she knew it to exist now. These stories, laid out in a bizarre format that seemed to mix a form of graphic depictions alongside the human language as text, reminded the Commander of many struggles within her own empire’s history; times when it took massive competing armies to determine which philosophy should rule their future; times when the death tolls where high and the waste of resources on putting down rebellions was tremendous. The Commander reviewed these documents left behind by the unknown crew member of the human terraforming station and pondered where these great heroes of humanity were, if not already devastating the front lines of M’quezniok fleet.
That’s when it occurred to her. The humans were giving the M’quezniok a chance to prove themselve worthy of living. They were giving the M’quezniok an opportunity to stop their conquest against the humans on their own before they unleashed their most powerful military forces. The Commander, stunned by her realization, dropped the volume of deeds and turned to her communications terminal.
“We have made a grave mistake in violating human space” she began her message. “I have uncovered a volume of histories which outline the capacity that humans have when situations exceed their tolerance. I have uncovered this box, quite by accident, as an item of abandoned loot in my most recent raid. Please review the contents, as I have put them into the end of the this transmission. Consider that all we know of humans through direct contacts is corroborated in these volumes: they always try to allow those who have wronged them to change their ways and, only when those ways are not changed, does it appear that they will unleash tremendous force to utterly defeat and destroy their foes. Note, in sample 17, that the humans in the story, after being unable to reach a peaceful accord with their opponents, wiped and entire sentient race from the cosmos to end the conflict with them. Note in samples 3, 9, and 47, that they have the mind to develop weapons that can be silently deployed among their enemies and which will only affect their enemies, causing them to die of disease whether the battle reaches them or not. Note that, in samples 5, 9, and 62, that the humans have a history of boarding enemy vessels in small numbers and converting the vessels themselves into weapons to destroy huge components of the enemy fleet. Most importantly, in all of the above examples, note that humans will often sacrifice themselves without promise of lasting glory or honor or riches to merely inflict harm on their opponents. There is no methodology of these tales that makes sense in our culture and that, we should all agree, makes the humans infinitely more dangerous than we previously expected. More than all of the previous, note that the humans have the capacity, when needed, to reveal their strongest military assets; single individuals who carry the power of an entire legion of our finest soldiers. Single fighters who can destroy warships without any equipment or weaponry. Single individuals who, according to these volumes, have the ability to turn our very minds against us if we face them in battle. As you are all aware, it has appeared that the humans have given up all efforts to defend themselves against us and the war is, essentially, over. There is no more honor or glory to be found in fighting humans. We arrive, they retreat. We arrive, they abandon what they have built. We arrive, and they fall back, taking all of their observations of us with them. As you can see from volumes 1, 6, 19, 33, 42, 54, 68, 71, and 98, this is when their greatest warriors emerge. It is my tactical advice that the abandonment of this specific box of intelligence on human culture was left as a final warning to us; a warning that, should we continue our actions against them, we will pay the consequences as they unleash their greatest technology and soldiers against us. If you agree, order all Conquestors to halt their advancement and return to the edge of our space.
—----
Humanity Space Command received the transmission. The statement of complete cessation of M’quezniok incursions and a promise that the last 79 encounters, in which humans had abandoned the facilities before the M’quezniok could even arrive to start fighting, would be surrendered peacefully, and permanently, back to human control.
The message indicated that the worlds conquered by force would be the new, permanent, boundary between the two empires and that humanity need not fear for any future incursions. The message also outlined that, should humanity absolutely require it so as to not unleash their greatest warriors in retribution, a list of worlds could be presented as negotiable assets that could be returned.
Human Space Command was baffled. Astounded, pleased, elated, even… but more than anything else, baffled. The best humanity had been able to offer was defeated in every dispute against the M’quezniok. Their individuals were faster, stronger, and harder to kill than humans. Their weapons were more powerful. Their defensive technology vastly outclassed anything humanity could throw at them. Their declaration of cessation simply made no sense and their outlines that they wished to avoid humanity unleashing their greatest warriors and technology as retribution made even less sense. But the top brass of HSC was not about to continue a war in which humanity had no hope of winning when the opposition declared they were done.
The HSC’s final conference on the subject, prior to transmitting the acceptance of the M’quezniok’s declaration, ended with a compound question: “who is this Lois Lane and why do they want her to be the liaison should we have to open negotiations?”

TLDR - My best friend makes me feel not enough constantly despite me trying for years and even at my full max capacity, its not enough and my growth feels stifled. She gets angry at me so easily for not being open but herself is conditional with her love. But she does put in effort from her side so I feel guilty for slowly not caring and now im defeated. I look forward to times we dont speak. AITAH and how do I deal with this?
My best friend and I have been like sisters for about 14 years. However, over the past 4-5 years, it feels like she's become very involved in her own life and is always unbelievably overwhelmed by her problems. She doesn't seem to have space for anyone else except for herself and her boyfriends. This bothered me a lot at first, but after a few fights, I made peace with the fact that we're at different stages in life and can't stay as in touch. I continued living my life, but she randomly gets upset with me for not being present in hers. We live on different continents now btw. I try my best, but she's usually too overwhelmed to talk or even pick up my calls. She expects me to know everything and gets mad if I can't remember everything perfectly. The bottom line is, I can list countless experiences where she's been angry at me for just being myself or reacting to her issues. While I try to learn from our fights, I feel she doesn't introspect and just expects me to meet her standards. When I can't meet them, she immediately dismisses everything and goes back to not sharing details of her life or not caring. We live on different continents, so it's hard to have the same level of involvement. She likes to keep people happy and has good social skills, so she checks off things she thinks people want. For example, my brother has been sick, so she asks about him, but after knowing her for so long, I know she doesn't really care. I'd rather not talk about it unless it's a genuine question. Our common friends see this trait in her too—this conditional love. They dont really give a shit anymore, cause she holds them to this unachievable standard too, but I've been trying very hard to be optimistic. However, I feel she expects too much from me. She doesn't like when I have different opinions and doesn't empathize with me. If she did, she'd cut me some slack. Honestly, I don't enjoy sharing anything with her anymore. Her presence in my life now gives me anxiety. I constantly feel like I still have to prove myself to her, even after being a loyal friend for 14 years. I don't think I should have to prove myself anymore; I know her heart, and I don’t think she has anything to prove to me. For some reason, I find it very difficult to say this to her face because she's always going through something. So, I've taken a step back, but then she puts in more effort, like calling and texting. I haven't been responding because she yelled at me about a month ago for not being enough. This has taken away my motivation to try. I feel extra guilt for not wanting to try when she does. I hate that I've given up after investing so much in her. I still think of her like a sister, so I'm struggling to end things and feel like a loser for giving up. But I actually don't think I'm open to her energy at all. I'm sure she has her side, but this is mine. I keep dismissing my own feelings, but yesterday I saw in my journal from four years ago (and many fights ago) that I still felt the same things—not being enough for her even though I was trying my best. Maybe we will reconnect one day but for now im done tbh
Lmk AITAH + do I (and if so how) do I deal with this situation without regrets.

Hello everyone. I have been down a little rabbit hole today trying to find myself. Aren't we all at some point? Up till today, I thought I was an INTJ. So I posted on INTJ and some said I could be, most said I sounded more INTP. So I then posted virtually the same thing over at INTP. I mostly took the 16 personalty tests and fruity tests. I do not want to spam the the same post, (that's dull) so I need help from the fellow INFJ community helping me help myself find myself. ha
I took the keys 2 test recommended on the Post Guide and scored INFJ. A good start. Right before, I took this Michael Caloz test, pretty neat and I like the colors. https://www.michaelcaloz.com/personality/index.html?screen=last&Ti=7&Te=0&Fi=0&Fe=15&Si=0&Se=3&Ni=13&Ne=6&SJ=0&NF=1.5&NT=1.5&SP=0&iFi=0&iTi=1&iSi=0&iNi=0&iFe=0&iTe=1&iSe=1&iNe=0&E=0&I=2&N=2&S=0&T=2&F=0&J=0&P=2
Also scored INFJ.
So about me. I am a 35 yo male, married with a 2 year old and another kiddo on the way.
I have, for as long as I can remember, been obsessed with ancient history, ancient cultures, anthropology, archaeology and the hidden mysteries. Secret, forgotten knowledge of the world. I wanted to be an archaeologist for the longest time. Okay, paleontologist since I saw Jurassic Park at age 5 in 1994. lol. I was never good at sports, pretty lazy growing up. I loved to play with friends as a kid but had a hard time with getting bullied. I hated confrontation growing up. Now, I handle confrontation tactfully and sooner rather than later as I know It can develop into something potentially worse if I don't do something about it.
I want to get along with everyone. I hate when people are taking advantage of others, especially my loved ones. Sometimes I run thru scenarios in my head when I feel someone is going to be taken advantage and how I can stand up for them. Im not that charitable though in the traditional sense. I do not like the thought of volunteering because I want time to be with my family and my hobbies. Mostly my hobbies are researching my favorite subjects. Ancient history, anthropology, psychology, science, engineering, economics, urban planning. I am into investing now because I dream of being able to have money in 30 years and focus on traveling the world more with my wife.
I enjoy traveling as often as I can. Even if it is just to go to the beach. 25 minutes away. Get out with my thoughts and enjoy the waves. Im big into people watching. I don't go out of my way to meet or talk with people. But if people talk with me, I open up. I smile a lot to let them know I am receptive and keep the conversation going. If it's heading in a bad direction, I try to make the conversation pleasing to keep it harmonious. I like to be polite because they came up to me and started talking. I feel the pressure and responsibility to socialize even when I feel I might not want to sometimes because it feels like the right thing to do. Example, if its been 2-3 weeks and we haven't reached out to our neighbor who watches our baby every now and then, I reach out to her just to say hi or invite her over for grilling on the weekend. So she doesn't think we are ignored her too long. lol
I have flipped flopped majors for so long. I have the hardest time finding my true passion. I did the Air Force for 8 years and I am out of the military now pursuing Engineering. Either Mechanical or Biomedical Engineering. Biomedical engineering would be sweet because I can help others without being a Doctor or Nurse. That would just be too much for me, I feel.
I always know something is going to happen before it does. My wife is constantly annoyed by it. I get upset inside when people don't listen to my advice. But I have been told I am a good listener and I do like to listen to peoples problems and make them feel heard and safe. I'm pretty physically affectionate with my loved ones. My favorite dates with my wife are to a nice restaurant (Italian mostly) lol and to the movies when we get a sitter available. Sometimes, axe throwing or bowling is cool.
I don't have any friends right now because I feel that there are sensor types everywhere that I do not relate to. I also am skeptical and have trust issues. I can sense people when they have bad intentions instinctively even before they make their move. I really want to have a a real, true friend or two. In the past, I have made friends by pretending to be more "extraverted, spontaneous, physical, drinking, partying, etc." But it's left me heartbroken because it was not my true self and I feel I only attracted people by being someone else. Even know I know that it would work I hate that it did.
I have been told I can walk into a room and light it up or I can bring it down if I am having a bad day. Does this sound like INFJ or some other type?
TL/DR
I’m a 35-year-old married man, father to a 2-year-old and another child on the way, with a lifelong fascination for ancient history, cultures, and hidden mysteries. I’ve always been more inclined towards intellectual pursuits over sports, and I now handle confrontations tactfully, a skill I’ve developed over time. My hobbies include researching various subjects, and I dream of financial freedom to travel the world with my wife. I’m currently pursuing Engineering after serving in the Air Force for 8 years, and I have a knack for sensing what’s about to happen. I’ve been told I can either light up a room or bring it down if I’m having a bad day. Does this sound like INFJ or some other type?

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This post is very long. This first section, before the first triple-line-break, is the summary. Details follow that.
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SUMMARY
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So, I was very much looking forward to Legendary Tales for a while now after hearing so many great things.
I bought it on sale a couple days ago and played the first hour or so, completing the tutorial and entering the main hub. Then I uninstalled and refunded it.
This is not a 'hate post' and I hope that this post will not only help people understand some of the issues of this game, and what this game is NOT, but also help people understand what this game is and why you might love it. I talked about my criticisms with others who love the game to help me approach this and hopefully deliver some useful thoughts. It's worth noting that I got lots of agreement about my criticisms from the people I talked to - who still love the game.
In short,
People love this game for the combat development in the context of a 40+ hour adventure. All the depth to the skill trees, which of course in my hour I didn't touch. The creativity of building the mechanics of a character RPG style - except you get to physically battle in VR. The reward of unlocking that cool skill you've been excited to try out, or finding a legendary that's a blast to use. Even in my short time with the game I could feel the beginnings of this with the parry system. I did have fun fighting skeletons with a simple sword and no skills, and felt the challenge as I had to aim my sword deflections well and time my counterstrikes. There is an effective mechanic preventing waggle-fest and I can begin to imagine all the room to develop your combat mechanics in a way that is, fun and rewarding, and uniquely VR.
Sounds great right? To some it truly is.
But to me, not so much. Why? Because everything else is lacking to a degree I did not expect.
I've been playing a lot of The Light Brigade lately. And although these two games are totally different, it's a useful game to bring up because The Light Brigade excels in all the ways that Legendary Tales significantly falls short.
Atmosphere - music and sound, lighting and colours, art design, character and enemy models
Interfacing - Onboarding and intuitive learning, UI design and fluidity, control mapping, options, grabbing/interacting with objects, general polish
Storytelling - Plot, lore, world building, characters, character and enemy expressiveness, writing
For many people who play games, combat is at the forefront of their interests. For me, it always takes a backseat priority - if its present at all - to the above three aspects. The combat in Bloodborne is great, but it is because it excels in those 3 aspects that it's one of my favourite games. I also love lengthy games like Pentiment, Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, and Pathologic 2, which have minimal or no combat and lots of reading!
Legendary Tales is simply mediocre in those three bolded aspects and for me that's a hard pass. If these aspects were serviceable to me - done well enough to facilitate the combat - I might have kept going. But I don't use the world 'mediocre' lightly. This is the appropriate word to me, and because of that, I did not want to spend 40+ hours in this world.
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DETAILS
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For those interested, or for the developers, I will continue with a breakdown of these aspects I am criticizing, trying to go through everything I felt about them in the first hour or so of playing.
Main menu was my favourite part. I liked the scene + music together. Nice. I was looking forward to playing and this had me feeling fuzzy and ready to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
The very first issue I noticed was that the game felt washed out. Even in that main menu I liked, I was feeling like it was a bit washed out. So I tried adjusting brightness down... then the darker areas felt better, but the light areas felt off. The more I played and tried to adjust to find the right equilibrium, the more I realized the lighting and contrast is just not good and adjusting brightness can't save that.
The second issue I noticed was the menu cursor to select things. It felt like an early VR game that hadn't quite figured out VR menus yet. It's useable but not fluid and pleasing.
The third issue I noticed was the unintuitive controls. I thought that this was the kind of game, kind of like a Souls game, where you aren't taught everything but learn things as you go in an organic manner. Maybe some of that exists in this game, but mostly it's simply bad control design and a bad tutorial. It's the difference between having barriers that have purpose, purposeful friction, and feel good when discovered vs barriers that feel pointless and just build frustration without purpose. The controls feel like a mess and while it's apparent that people can get used to them as they play more, it's not in a justified sense.
Along with this are interfacing issues. For example, grabbing items feels very awkward. The motions are clunky, for example the way a weapon will slowly glide into place in your hands. There's so many interfacing issues. The interface to see weapon/item stats on weapons that are laying about is clunky, the interface to switch weapons is clunky, the magic interface is clunky, dialogue boxes feel clunky,... all of these things feel clunky both in terms of feel and also aesthetic.
A very straightforward and obvious example is dialogue. Character dialogue is presented in a large bland text on a page. To progress through the dialogue, there's no obvious place to click or button to push. In fact, you have to click a particular area of the page, which feels totally arbitrary and unintuitive. Sure, once you learn, you can do it fine, but it's just bad interface design.
To go back to The Light Brigade, think about the difference in both feel and aesthetic to opening a chest or breaking a pot. Grabbing a gun and how it arrives to your hand. The attractive dialogue boxes. Watching a reward pop out of a chest, picking a tarot card. Putting objects into your waist pouch or taking them out. These interactions are all comfortable, beautiful, fluid, and intuitive.
The next thing on my mind was sound.
As I played the tutorial, the soundscape was barren. There was a wind loop, which didn't loop correctly leaving a solid second of space between the end and beginning. Sounds didn't feel like they were placed quite right in 3D space. Point-based sounds (like the crackling of a campfire, that comes from a specific point in space) had too small of a zone (the sound should be heard from further away). In general the soundscape was very barebones. And when I encountered the first character, not only did the character look totally goofy and out of place, but they made no sounds when 'speaking', not even grunts or gibberish sound.
To skip ahead for a moment, I also felt the music did not match the environments enough. The music was quite pretty - that's not the problem. It just didn't feel like the environments were quite synergized with the music.
Again for both music and sound, think of the gun sounds, the ability sounds, the sound of the enemies as they spot you, the sound of the environment, the footsteps and dash, the grunts of characters when the speak, the music... not only does it all sound great, but it all feels like expressions of the unique world of The Light Brigade. This is excellent sound and music design, that truly bring the world to life.
Although a minor complaint, I also noticed lots of grammar and spelling errors. Although I understand the team is in South Korea, and I appreciate the challenges of translation, just like with everything else I was just expecting... more polish. I thought it would feel like a full package, at indie scale. But it feels very much like a partial package.
And that segues into the writing...
There are games with simple and/or unmemorable story, where the story is still servicing and facilitating the gameplay.
And then there is just plain bad writing.
This is very much the latter.
Maybe a bit of this goes back to translation but I am doubtful that it fares much better in original Korean in essence.
The writing is goofy, juvenile, poorly structured, and generic.
I was also seriously turned off by a couple lines in particular, that I'm sure affect me more than most but I will mention anyways. One was something like "valuable gem missing. And a hot girl". Like... There's nothing inherent about calling a woman (or a man) hot that I don't like. Yes gamers, you are allowed to find women attractive, relax. But it's the way its written,... I'm not going to turn this into an essay about male gaze but the way its written simply services a particular male audience that casually objectifies women.
Even worse was the final line I read, a quest line. Paraphrasing, but the primary descriptive words are all exact: "Go kill 10 kill peasants in a refugee camp". I don't think I need to elaborate, people who are on a similar page to me will understand why this was just an incredibly gross line.
I know the above two dialogue criticisms will not be shared by everyone and not affect everyone the same way. I am expressing them as part of what I felt, my personal criticisms and experience, just like the rest of what I'm sharing.
Again to compare to The Light Brigade... every line feels thoughtful and builds character and develops the lore. Whether its the forlorn lines of NPC members of The Light Brigade, or the scenes that appear between runs, and other bits and pieces you get. The Light Brigade develops so much world with few words, it's quite impressive and again a beacon that Urban Wolf Games can learn from.
The final issue I'll discuss was something that struck me earlier on. That is, player character model and lack of customization.
First of all - again an issue that the majority here probably won't be affected by - I could not pick my character model until after completing the tutorial. Specifically, I was forced to do calibration as a male character model, and then had to play the tutorial as this character. Minor complaint but again just another polish issue.
Both male and female models are just... boring designs, and the female model is again very juvenile, obviously serving a primarily male audience, whether intentionally or not.
But more importantly, there's no character customization. Not even the tiniest bit. Even the ability to change just skin colour and hair only would go a long way. Especially in a lengthy adventure like this, I need to be able to identify with my character. Especially with multiplayer it seems essential to me, but even if it were single player, and as someone who plays primarily in single player, character customization is hugely impactful to me.
This does not really have a contrast in The Light Brigade - there's no character customization in The Light Brigade either, although the kind of game it is, it's not as relevant. That said, I do think it would be a nice touch if there WAS some minor character customization in The Light Brigade, and especially if you could play as a woman instead of man if you so choose. Although maybe lore-wise it is intended that all members are male except for 'Mother'. This hasn't been established with any good reason though. So on this point I would lightly criticize The Light Brigade as well.
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ENDING THOUGHTS
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Ultimately, Legendary Tales is quite simply a very indie game that probably had a very small team and limited funds. I don't know for sure, but probably there *wasn't* a dedicated writer, a dedicated UI and interface designer, etc.
However, these things are still failings of the game and its design. The greatest indie games to me are ones that successfully recognize their scope limitations and develop something complete within that scope. Whether it's the roguelike world of The Light Brigade, or the very short and stylish Tiger Blade, or Jeff Minter's trippy games like Akka Arrh and Polybius, or the retro Silent Hill aesthetic of Organ Quarter, or the suspenseful hotel of Propagation Paradise Hotel... all these games are made by small teams but successfully navigate their limited funds to deliver a full package within an appropriately limited scope.
On the one hand, I really value and support BJ's push for indie games to be respected and for that respect to reflect in the price consumers are prepared to pay. But after being totally on board with the price of Legendary Tales based on what I read from BJ and reviewers and many regular players too, I have to disagree with this game's pricing. This game is not polished enough, and is not a full package. That the game sucked out so much funds is an error of scope.
Maybe I will be in the minority, and Legendary Tales has been a success so it seems that I am, and so good on them for knowing the value of their game to the demographic they targeted I guess. And regardless, even if the pricing and attempted scope of the game are an error on the dev's part, I'm glad for the dev to earn back as much as they can, or even turn a profit hopefully.
But to me, reflecting back to the question the devs put forward: "Do you want to see deep combat development like this in VR for a 40+ hour adventure from indie devs?" The answer is no, I don't. I do consider the scope of this game an error on the part of the developers. It sounds like they did not even turn a profit enough to allow them to expand their team (but maybe I'm misunderstanding). I hope that they do continue with VR development, but instead focus on a much smaller scope game. Deliver a polished, complete package within a smaller scope, implementing a much tighter budget that will allow for potential turning of profit with an appropriately lighter sale price (maybe targeting a $30 game?).
If that is successful, do it again, and again, until they can expand and eventually work toward their dream adventure RPG, hiring actual writers and UI designers and sound designers etc. For me personally, this is simply not the kind of game you can half-bake. It should be attempted again when, and only when, they feel they have budget to do this in a truly full and polished manner.
I had the pleasure of meeting BJ briefly at PAX East. He struck me as friendly, kind, totally genuine, and incredibly passionate as a game developer and a VR game developer in particular.
I do wish this team good luck and despite my own harsh criticism I am glad so many ARE enjoying this game, and also feel the price point is justified. I want devs to earn money, including Urban Wolf Games. And I hope that they will continue to develop and bring more VR to the world.
I hope that my criticism is constructive and useful toward these same goals.

To preface this: I overthink everything, I am in my own way with most things in life.

• What are some ways I can get into the comics? I get just diving in, I've been doing it but I've been overwhelmed.
  
• Should I start all the way back and slowly make my way to the present or read the most groundbreaking first? I know about the New 52. I follow some youtubers and read some comics. I am a terrible reader but I've been making progress.
  
• What are some of your favorite comics?
  
• What is a continuity in this context? What is a concluded set of issues called? Can two different 'stories' be under the same title and issue number? E.g. Flash #34 or Batman #69 or something.
  
• What are there some things I should avoid? Examples like: certain wikis, artists, etc.
  
• What things should I keep track of to be able to participate meaningfully in a discussion? Comic news resources, artists, community figures, etc.
  

These are just some of the questions rattling around my noggin'.

This is a long one, sorry in advanced.
For context, I (21 Transmasc Nonbinary) grew up in a Christian household. My parents were both raised Catholic, and at some point both switched to Lutheran/United Methodist/Episcopal style worship. In my mid-to-late teens, my family started to frequent a small, up and coming nondenominational church. To this day, I’m seeing the logo stuck to the trunk of cars, as the church has only massively grown in popularity since this experience. I was EXTREMELY involved, even performing as part of the on-stage worship team for the youth group, and was still presenting as a woman at the time, as I had yet to realize I’m trans. The church’s live music and bustling social atmosphere drew us in fast, and acted as incentive for me to conform.
Unluckily for me, someone let it slip to Youth Leadership that I was queer, and dating another girl at the time. Next week, my family came back to stares, rumors, and I was passive-aggressively told that I was no longer welcome to take part in leadership team, as “my conduct was not in line with the example I should be setting.”
I deeply believe, even to this day, that my faith back then was superficial - an act I put on for Wednesday night youth group and Sunday services. It was as real as my portrayal of self, which was also just a coagulation of both physical and emotional traits I deemed to be likable. HOWEVER -
Since then, I’ve grappled heavily with my faith. I’ve had sporadic unexplainable experiences directly tied with the concept of faith, and I have been unable to ignore the gut feeling that SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE is calling me “home.” I’ve experienced the peace in increments that true faith can bring, and I crave that connection more than anything. However, with the ostracism I was faced with as a teen, I now have a guard up around anything Christian. I love the teachings of historical Jesus, and diving into reading translations for myself by comparing them to the original Hebrew and the context it was written in.
However, I don’t know what is “of God” and what is “of the world” anymore. In retrospect, the church I was a part of is an incredibly greedy, borderline culty organization. Their sermons are stolen verbatim from offline, and their messages pushed financial gifts to the church far too often to be sincere. But no matter how many times I try to remind myself that that organization is NOT rooted in proper intentions of faith, I still find myself wandering hopelessly in circles trying to identify what IS God speaking to me, and what’s the narrative being pushed by human greed… or worse - well intended misguidance. That’s not even TOUCHING the deconstruction that had to occur for me to feel safe within my queer identity after an experience like that.
How can I filter out the noise to hear what God is truly trying to tell me? How can I stop being terrified of navigating a relationship with God when I can’t even trust myself to be able to recognize when someone is HARMING my faith, rather than hurt it? I feel as though I just left an abusive relationship and I don’t know what a normal relationship looks like.